Hmmmm?

What to do now?

It All Sort of Evens Out

We went to New York City yesterday. It was a fiasco and I didn't end up eating very well, but we walked a lot and I think my metabolism has been jump started, so I still weighed less this morning than last time I weighed myself. Thank goodness. If I had gained weight after all that, I probably would have just a hate-hate relationship with NYC, instead of the love-hate I'm at now.

GREAT Walking Start!

I walked two miles today! On accident! :)

We (me and the kiddos in a ginormous double stroller) headed out for a walk this morning, determined to go as far as we could. We explored our immediate area and had a really nice time, despite the cold. I kept telling myself to just go to the end of that street, then the end of that street, just keep going! Then we turned around and came home the way we went so we didn't get lost. :)

Back at home I tracked our route ant it came to 2.08 miles! Yay! I honestly thought that I was so out of shape that 1 mile would be hard. But I did two without even knowing it. What a great surprise!

I think we found our new walking route!

What's Been Working For Me

After such a successful start, I thought I'd share what exactly I'm doing and what my plan is.

After becoming acquainted with SparkPeople.com, I put in my weight loss goal (23 pounds by June 30) and it told me I need to eat 1200-1500 calories a day and burn 850 calories a day to reach my goal. Good to know! So I've been tracking everything I eat. I know I'm going to see the exact nutritional facts about everything I eat, and that's helpful in keeping me away from the really bad foods. I put in what I had for breakfast, and it calculates calories, fat, carbs, etc., so I know how much I can still eat. And I really try to stay right in the brackets it set for me. There has only been one day so far that I went over. I've been eating a lot of fruits and veggies and a lot less carbs. (hard!!) I basically bought out the produce section at the store. It's been great. I even had half a can of corn for a snack. Yum. I've been eating mostly toast and yogurt/fruit for breakfast, then something light for lunch and some kind of lean meat for dinner. And when I'm starving and need something to really fill me up, I either eat a half serving of Wheat Thins (reduced fat, of course) or have a cheese stick. So far so good!

I haven't been doing a whole lot more exercise yet, though. Tomorrow I hope to start my new walking routine. I know I can't walk very far yet, but I have another goal here. By the end of the summer (beginning of September-ish?) I want to be able to walk to the Public Library, and back home. That will be a round trip of 5 miles. I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to walk there without too much difficulty by the end of my first goal date, but I think it will be a real challenge to get back home too. Right now I'll start with about 30 minutes of walking a day and see where we are in a week.

I'm feeling really good and more confident than ever. Isn't it weird how just admitting to myself that my weight has become a problem, and knowing that I'm on the path to fixing it has made me feel confident and pretty again? This is going to be great!

Monday Morning Weight 4/12/2010

Yay! I lost some weight since I started on Thursday.

Weight: 242.4 (I originally put 424 pounds. Hee hee)

BMI: 38.0

That's a loss of 5.2 pounds and almost 1 whole BMI point!

Comin' down! :)

Now That Is Willpower!

Today we went on a family outing. On the way home, we went through a McDonald's drive-thru. My husband and my little boy got meals. I fed Jeffy his chicken nuggets and fries that were sitting on my lap and DID NOT EAT A SINGLE FRY! (or nugget) And we got lost on the way home so it took a lot longer than I expected, so I sat there with yummy junk on my lap without eating any of it!

I am proud of myself and am really starting to believe that I can get all the way down to skinny person land.

Go me!!

SparkPeople.com

Hey y'all!

Thanks so much for the encouragement and support! I never thought it would feel this good to have my weight published on the internet! :)

A very cool lady directed me to a website that has helped her lose a lot of weight--12 lbs last month! It's called sparkpeople.com. It's a website that has a plethora of resources to help you along your journey to health. My favorite tool so far is called the Nutrition Tracker. You make a goal (mine is to lose 23 pounds by June 30) and it tells you the right amount of calories, carbs, fat, etc., that you need to eat in a day to make your goal. You then input what you eat that day and it calculates the information for those foods, and lets you know how many calories (and everything else) you've eaten and how much you can still eat that day to stay on goal. It's a really neat tool and I've used it just to look up the nutrition info on foods I'm thinking of eating. This usually results in me deciding not to eat it! :)

It also has a Fitness Tracker, that does the same thing for exercise. I haven't gotten this far into the site yet and don't want to get overwhelmed, so I'll probably add this on a little later. And it has a lot more options too, that I just don't know about yet.

But, the best part is that you get this all for free!

For free?

For free!!

It's like those other weight-loss sites you can join, but this one is free! Boo-yah! So anyone who wants to join me in a journey to better health, join the site, and add me as your friend! My username is bethanylyndavis. Yes, I know. The ultimate epitome of creativity. :)

I'm excited about this new tool that's going to help me release the skinny girl trapped inside me!

Oh! And I also found a weight-loss ticker for this blog. Those are always fun too!

Stay posted for a vlog in the next post! (I learned that that means a video-log . . . or something.)

Beginning Weight and BMI

Weight: 247.6

BMI: 38.9

So, does that make me overweight? :)

Here we go.

This is the first step to becoming who I want to be. I'm admitting to the universe that I don't look like I did when I was in high school . . . even when I got married. I know that, but I didn't want anyone I knew as a skinny person to know it.

So I'm really putting myself out there. I'm committing to myself and to the blogging universe to change my life. No more excuses, no secrets. I'm going all-out! Every week, I will record my weight, and every 4 weeks, my BMI. Ugh, scary stuff. I expect jaws to drop when you see my actual numbers, but keep that to yourself, and just send some good thoughts my way, kay?

First things first: Weight Introduction: How I Got Obese

(yes, yes, I know, eating too much. yeah, thanks.)

I've always struggled more or less with my weight. I went through a couple chunky years at the end of elementary/beginning of middle school, but by the middle of high school, I was doing pretty well. Senior year I was about 145, wearing a size small up top and a med/large on bottom. (Curse those hips!) I wasn't stick thin, but I was a really good size for me. But, back then I felt overweight. Now I just feel foolish for thinking that.

When I got to college, I put on the freshman 15. But, for me it was the freshman 20 or 25. I was so excited about choosing my own food! I went to the galley at school--the buffet-type cafeteria--which was probably not the best option for me. Food! Everywhere! As much as you want! (i.e., can stuff in your face.) At home, you had to ask to eat anything, and quantities were rationed. There were lots of mouths to feed. So out on my own, I could eat however much I wanted . . . and I did.

After that first year, I held my weight mostly steady for the next few years. During a study abroad in London, I started putting on some pounds because our cook, Tina, made amazing food, and again, lots of it. But, I caught myself there, and retrenched. By the end of the semester, I was in really good shape from traipsing all over the English countryside. The following summer was a good one for me. I jogged on the treadmill almost everyday, and even joined the ranks of the people who can do multiple miles in one go! Yay!

That school year, I didn't eat very much because I simply didn't have the money to eat. My roommates even put together a box of food with my name on it and left it on the doorstep "anonymously." I didn't exercise a whole lot, but I maintained my weight. I was 170. A little bigger, but not too bad. And I didn't look it. I told myself that I held my weight well. This thought would get me into trouble later.

I met my husband that year, and we got married the following August. I went from being too poor to afford food to rich enough to eat at McDonald's regularly! Which we did. Jeff was a connosieur of McDonald's and we had some money saved up, plus wedding present money, plus grant money, so we ate out a lot, and that's when the bad really started happening. I put on a lot of weight then. I'm not even sure how much. I didn't see it happening. All I know is that when I got pregnant the next April (2008), I looked very pregnant right from the beginning.

By the end of that pregnancy I weighed something like 250 or something. I put on a lot of weight while being pregnant, since I didn't really try to control my eating. Hey, I had a real reason to eat, right? (hint-wrong) But the after Jeffy was born, I hit the walking again. We were staying with my in-laws at the time and they had a nice big two-mile block in their neighborhood that I would walk regularly. And I got down to 215. And then I got pregnant.

I still exercised prego, but not with the intention of losing weight. I wanted to stay the same weight though the whole pregnancy, since I was already overweight, I didn't need to gain any. I only gained 4 pounds the first half of the pregnancy, but then we moved, and the junk food started. I was 260 by the end of that pregnancy. Yuck.

I lost about 40 pounds in the two or so months after Katelyn's birth. So I was down to 220. Things were going pretty well, I was ready to start losing weight for real, but then depression hit. My thyroid went out. I got cold all the time. My hair started falling out fast. I went into a depression. I ate all the time. I knew what it was doing to me, and I couldn't stop--I couldn't make myself care. I went onto some medication for my thyroid and started seeing improvement everywhere in my life after about 6 weeks. I'm not depressed anymore, that's the big one. (And my hair seems to finally have STOPPED falling out! Hallelujah!)

So that's basically where we are now. I don't know what I weigh, since I'm not going to the doctor regularly for pregnancy or anything and we don't have a scale. So I guess that's the first step-- acquire a scale, weigh myself, and set some goals. I can do it. And I hope you'll help support me.

Thanks.